Painted Walls: Duane Flatmo

Only beginning to dip my toes into the art community of Eureka, I've not yet gone to the renowned "Arts Alive!" festival. (Yet!) My art fix, fortunately has been sated in other ways. I've passed by homes with still wet paintings strewn about lawns, clay drying on top of newspapers, or completed large scale installations. All vary from the lovely to the downright, "this is making me just a tad bit uneasy" to the "it's in the eye of the beholder." There are also very well known artists whom have stamped the city with their talent. One of which is Duane Flatmo.

My favorite is a "pop" style mural,"No Barking Anytime."

Alley behind North Coast Dance

It's silly, it's colorful and it reminds me of the canine counterpart to Heathcliff's gang.
While I take it to be silly, because life is often too short to be taken seriously; there is a message concerning an individual's rights to follow their natural instincts.

 Talented artist Duane Flatmo (who also painted "No Barking...") has several murals around Humboldt County. The following two are the most fanciful and breathtaking due to the borderline-surreal approach taken by Flatmo as well their startling size and detail.

Mural seen walking east on the 101 S

Arkley Center for the Performing Arts

A bumblebee during my "tour" gave me pause to consider what sort of community willingly homes such a diminutive artist who enables nature to paint it's own delightful landscapes.

Thanks goodness bumble bees don't mind paparazzi. 

 A good one, that is which. Bumblebee populations are being depleted across the country. I've seen a sparse few in the last few years prior to my arrival in Humboldt County, which has been represented in the decline of other native species in the areas of my past locals. Here, they have a home. Diversity, not only of the H. sapiens variety, seems welcome in Eureka.

*~*~*Do It Yourself*~*~*

I'm fairly certain that in no great length of time, I'll be lucky to have seen more of Duane Flatmo's work. If you'd enjoy taking a tour and are unable to spend a ton of time hunting murals or cannot travel to Humboldt County OR if you are in Humboldt County and you'd like to know where to find more murals by Flatmo check out Batchgeo's Flatmo Mural Guide, complete with pictures and addresses.